Enhancing Cognition with Video Games: A Multiple

Game Training Study

Adam C. Oei*, Michael D. Patterson
Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Abstract
Background: Previous evidence points to a causal link between playing action video games and enhanced cognition and
perception. However, benefits of playing other video games are under-investigated. We examined whether playing non-
action games also improves cognition. Hence, we compared transfer effects of an action and other non-action types that
required different cognitive demands.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We instructed 5 groups of non-gamer participants to play one game each on a mobile
device (iPhone/iPod Touch) for one hour a day/five days a week over four weeks (20 hours). Games included action, spatial
memory, match-3, hidden- object, and an agent-based life simulation. Participants performed four behavioral tasks before
and after video game training to assess for transfer effects. Tasks included an attentional blink task, a spatial memory and
visual search dual task, a visual filter memory task to assess for multiple object tracking and cognitive control, as well as a
complex verbal span task. Action game playing eliminated attentional blink and improved cognitive control and multiple-
object tracking. Match-3, spatial memory and hidden object games improved visual search performance while the latter two
also improved spatial working memory. Complex verbal span improved after match-3 and action game training.

Conclusion/Significance: Cognitive improvements were not limited to action game training alone and different games
enhanced different aspects of cognition. We conclude that training specific cognitive abilities frequently in a video game
improves performance in tasks that share common underlying demands. Overall, these results suggest that many video
game-related cognitive improvements may not be due to training of general broad cognitive systems such as executive
attentional control, but instead due to frequent utilization of specific cognitive processes during game play. Thus, many
video game training related improvements to cognition may be attributed to near-transfer effects.

Citation: Oei AC, Patterson MD (2013) Enhancing Cognition with Video Games: A Multiple Game Training Study. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58546. doi:10.1371/
journal.pone.0058546
Editor: Joy J. Geng, University of California, Davis, United States of America
Received September 27, 2012; Accepted February 5, 2013; Published March 13, 2013
Copyright: ß 2013 Oei, Patterson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This research was supported by a DSO National Laboratories (http://www.dso.org.sg) grant to Michael D. Patterson. The funders had no role in study
design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: cmoei1@e.ntu.edu.sg

Introduction memory, inhibition and reduced attentional capture

The link between playing action video games and enhanced
cognitive and visual-perceptual abilities is well documented.
However, the definition of action video games and why playing
them leads to improved abilities has not been resolved.
Most action video game studies have used first person shooter
games (but see [1]). These video games contain several common
properties: unpredictability, intense speed, high perceptual,
cognitive and motor load, the selection between multiple action
plans and an emphasis on peripheral processing [2]. Action video
game related perceptual enhancements have been reported in the
following areas: improved peripheral vision [3,4,5], reduced
crowding effect [6], a shorter period of backward masking [7]
and improved contrast sensitivity [8]. Action video game play has
also been linked to enhanced cognitive abilities such as attending
to multiple objects simultaneously [3,9,10,11], superior spatial
skills [5] as well as reduced attentional blink effects [3].
Furthermore, these enhancements have also been seen in higher-
order executive control functions such as task switching, working
[12,13,14,15,16,17].
Although there is a large amount of evidence of the benefits of
action video games, not all cognitive abilities that have been
measured were improved by action video game play. For instance,
no differences have been found between action video game players
and non-gamers in the ability to inhibit attention from returning to
previously attended locations [18], a phenomenon known as the
inhibition of return [19]. Furthermore, the ability to orient to an
exogenous cue has generally been found to be equivalent between
action and non-action video gamers [20].
Despite their potential benefits, action video games may not be
suitable for everyone. Many action video games contain violent
themes, making their suitability for young children questionable
[21]. Hence, there is a practical need to investigate whether non-
action games benefit cognitive and perceptual abilities.
Currently, little is known about the cognitive benefits of non-
action video games. Two studies have demonstrated evidence of
improved mental rotation skills in young children trained in Tetris
[22] in addition to enhanced executive control abilities in older
adults after real time strategy game training [23]. Nevertheless,

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these non-action video game training results are not directly
comparable to studies using action video games due to differences
in sample selection. While most action video game studies used
young adult samples, these two studies comprised of young
children [22] and elderly adults [23]. Hence, it remains unclear if
young adults trained using these games will show similar cognitive
improvements.
To date, there has been a paucity of studies that compared
transfer effects of different genres of games within the same study.
Such a comparison of multiple genres is important because it is
possible that different game types will improve different aspects of
cognition and perception.
In most longitudinal studies involving action video games,
researchers have compared a control group playing a non-action
video game (e.g., Tetris) to a treatment group playing an action
video game [3,6]. These studies have generally shown more
favorable transfer effects after playing action video games
compared to a control non-action video game. While the benefits
of action video games are not in question, the methods that have
been used in these previous studies may have favored action
games. Specifically, many action video game training studies have
utilized transfer tasks that mimic the demands of action video
games, thus possibly maximizing transfer effects. These transfer
tasks are typically fast paced, with multiple objects to track and
require quick switches of attention from one target to the next.
One commonly used task, the attentional blink task requires fast
recovery from detecting one target (T1) in preparation for
detecting a second target (T2). Cognitive abilities required in this
task are highly practiced in an action video game, where failure to
attend to a second target (e.g., enemies appearing in succession)
may result in losing points or even the game. Similarly, the
cognitive abilities required in a multiple object tracking transfer
task are also frequently practiced in action video games where
there are high demands to attend and respond to numerous items
simultaneously to progress in the game.
Group compositions in cross-sectional studies of action video
games may also have unfairly favored experienced action video
game players. Specifically, in cross-sectional studies [3,4,10,12],
participants who reported casual playing of various genres of non-
action video games have been grouped together with non-gamers
in a single control group when compared with experienced action
video gamers. Drawing conclusions on the superiority of action
video games based on such selection criteria is problematic
because the effects of playing non-action games may have been
masked by the inclusion of non-gamers. Grouping game players of
different genres within the same control group poses another
problem. Since playing different genres of non-action video games
may train different abilities, it is possible that the effects of different
non-action games may cancel each other out. One way around
this problem would be to directly compare performances between
experienced players of specific game genres in a single study,
although we suspect this would be operationally difficult because
gamers tend not to play a single genre of game exclusively.
We sought to extend previous findings of cognitive improve-
ments seen in action video games by including a wider range of
video game genres. That is, in addition to an action game, we
purposefully chose games that differ in cognitive demands like
visual matching and search (e.g., match-3 and hidden-object
game) as well as games that specifically train spatial working
memory (e.g., memory matrix). We also included an agent-based
life simulation game (The Sims) that did not initially appear to
contain any of the aforementioned cognitive demands as a
comparison.
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
Consistent with the claim that transfer of learning depends on
the similarities between the learning and transfer task (theory of
identical elements) [24], we propose that near transfer will be more
likely to occur in behavioral tasks that share similar demands with
the trained video games. Hence, frequent training of skills within
the game itself should lead to improvements when the same skills
are used in the behavioral tasks. Note that this proposal contrasts
with far-transfer proposals that suggest training on one task will
improve performance on multiple tasks. Far transfer claims
include enhanced attentional control and speeded learning of
new tasks after action video game training [25]. The near and far
transfer proposals make different predictions. The former predicts
that training on one cognitive task will only lead to improvements
in a similar cognitive task, but the latter proposal predicts
improvements in several or all tasks.
To test for these transfer effects, we included a wide range of
cognitive paradigms whose demands closely mimic the demands of
the video game training. This allowed us to determine the limits of
how cognitive abilities can be affected by video game playing.
Thus, we included measures that have previously shown
improvement after action video game training (i.e., cognitive
control, apprehension of multiple objects and attentional blink) as
well as two tasks that contain features similar to both action and
non-action video games used in the current study, but have not
been tested in relation to action video game training (i.e., spatial
working memory and visual search).
When a visual search and spatial working memory task were
administered concurrently, performance in both declined com-
pared to performance on each task separately [26,27]. Hence, the
inclusion of this dual task allows us to determine whether training
in video games that place demands on either search skills or spatial
working memory separately reduces interference between the two
tasks. Finally, we included a task to assess verbal working memory
span to determine if spatial working memory training can lead to
far transfer effects from a visual to verbal modality.
The apparent similarity between the demands in the training
games and the behavioral tasks used as pre- and post-measures
allowed us to make specific predictions regarding transfer effects.
First, the action game makes strong demands on flexible, rapid
and multiple target detection but at the same time requires
filtering out of distracting stimuli. Training should therefore
transfer to attentional blink, multiple object tracking and cognitive
control respectively.
In contrast to the action game where enemies are salient and
require selective attention, the match-3 game demands tracking
the location of multiple static items across a large area, effortful
and deliberate searching for items that can be moved to make
matches, and strategic planning to produce cascades of matches.
To find matches requires conjunctive search of both the item color
and the pattern in which it is arranged. Although at the earliest
levels, the number of possible matches is plentiful so a match can
be found by searching a small area of the game display, as the
levels progress, the number of possible matches decreases,
requiring the player to examine a larger area to find a match.
There is little demand to filter out simple visual information such
as color alone since matches may be made using any color at any
location of the screen. Any filtering of information would be at a
higher level of pattern analysis. There is a demand to keep track of
multiple, separate colored groups of objects so that possible areas
where matches can occur are remembered. Thus, playing match-3
should lead to improvements in visual search and the tracking of
tracking of multiple static objects.
Third, the hidden-object game places demands upon visual
search and thus is expected to lead to improvement in search,
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Figure 1. Attentional blink task. Sample of a single trial of the attentional blink task. T1 is the white letter G. In this trial, the ‘‘X’’ (T2) appeared in
Lag 2.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g001
allowing more resources to be used for a dual task of visual search
and spatial working memory. However, it does not demand fast
tracking of multiple objects and thus should not improve
attentional blink, cognitive control, and multiple-object tracking.
Fourth, the demands in memory matrix game are specific since
only spatial working memory is trained. Although there are some
memory demands in action video games to keep track of multiple
items, they contain many other demands. It is thus possible that
transfer will be more effective in the memory-matrix game since it
has no competing demands and therefore offers the most training
in spatial memory compared to other games. In addition,
assuming far transfer, we predict the memory matrix game is
most likely to lead to improvements in verbal working memory.
This assumes that the memory matrix task trains general memory
processes that are not modality specific.
Finally, for the agent-based life simulation game, we do not
expect improvements in any behavioral tasks in this study since it
does not appear to have similar demands to the behavioral tasks.
Although it does have some memory demands to keep track of the
goals of each agent, there is no incentive or need to do so as goals
and objectives are available on demand in the game menu.
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
Materials and Methods
Ethics Statement
The study was approved and conducted in compliance with the
guidelines set out by the Nanyang Technological University
Institutional Review Board (IRB; approval code: 11/02/30).
Participants
Participants were recruited via an online portal targeted at
undergraduates at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). 75
(28 males; Mage = 21.07, SD = 2.12) participants completed the
study for course credits and S$50. Five participants dropped out
during the study. Participants were randomly assigned to each
training group as follows: hidden-object (n = 15), memory matrix
(n = 14), match-3 (n = 14), action (n = 16) and The Sims (n = 16).
All participants were not regular video game players based on self-
report (defined as less than 1 hour of video game play per week in
the preceding year). Written informed consent was sought from all
participants prior to participation.
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Experimental Paradigms
All the experimental tasks were displayed using E-Prime 2.0
(Release candidate: 2.08.90; Psychology Software Tools, Inc,
Pittsburgh, PA, www.pstnet.com). The experimental stimuli were
presented to participants via a 19-inch LCD monitor from a
distance of approximately 60 cm. Participants responded to
experimental stimuli via a standard computer keyboard.
Attentional blink. As per previous studies [3,11], the
attentional blink task was used as a proxy for measuring the
temporal dynamics of visual attention. In each trial, participants
saw a series of black letters presented sequentially in a central
location on a grey background. Between the 7th and 15th letter
presented, a white letter (B, G or S) appeared. Each letter was
presented for 15 ms with an 85 ms inter-stimulus interval (ISI).
Participants were instructed to monitor the stream of letters
presented in each trial and identify the white letter (T1).
Additionally, they were instructed to decide whether a letter
‘‘X’’ (T2) was present in the stream of letters after T1. T2
appeared immediately after T1 (Lag 1), up to 7 letters after T1
(Lag 8) or not at all (see figure 1). T2 did not appear in 50% of the
trials. Participants practiced the task for 12 trials followed by 128
test trials presented in random order. At the end of each trial,
participants were instructed to indicate the target letter (T1) shown
as well as whether they detected T2.
Previous studies have shown that observers often failed to detect
a highly salient T2 appearing approximately 200–500 ms (Lags 2–
4) after T1 was detected. This phenomenon is known as
attentional blink [28].
The DV of interest here is the accuracy of detecting T2 after T1
was correctly identified. Correct T2 detections were not included
when T1 was not correctly identified. In particular, we focused on
Lags 2, 3 and 4 given that these lags were susceptible to the
attentional blink effect.
Filter task. Participants were presented with an array of
targets (red rectangles) and distractors (blue rectangles) in different
orientations against a white background. Targets and distractors
appeared in 10 different conditions of different quantities. These
conditions varied from 2 to 8 targets as well as 2 to 6 distractors
with the constraint of a maximum of 8 items in each array. Each
array was displayed for 100 ms followed by a retention interval of
900 ms during which a fixation cross was displayed. In the
subsequent display, one of the targets changed orientation in 50%
of the trials. Participants responded by pressing one of two keys to
indicate an orientation change or not. Participants performed 10
practice trials followed by 200 test trials.
This task was similar to that used in Ophir, Nass and Wagner
[29] adapted originally from Vogel, McCollough and Machizawa
[30]. The difference between the current and previous studies was
that stimuli were not manipulated so that they would appear in
different hemifields and thus no hemifield cue was needed.
We focused on two conditions in particular: the ability to filter
out multiple distractors (2 target 6 distractor condition; figure 2a)
and the ability to detect changes amidst a high number of targets
(8 targets 0 distractor condition; figure 2b). For the 2 target 6
distractor condition, we made the assumption that due to the high
number of distractors to filter out, it measured cognitive control.
The ability to filter out distractors can vary between individuals
[30]. Conversely, in the latter 8 target 0 distractor condition,
cognitive control to filter out distractors should not have been
involved due to the absence of distractors. However, owing to the
high number of targets, and the requirement to allocate attention
towards multiple items simultaneously, this condition demanded
multiple-object tracking.
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
Visual search/spatial memory. This task was adapted
from Woodman and Luck [27]. The task included three measures
– a visual search task, a spatial working task as well as a dual task
of visual search and spatial working memory. For the visual search
task performed alone, participants saw a search array of 4, 8 or 12
squares (set sizes) each with a gap on one side of each square. On
each trial, only one square was a target while the rest were
distractors. Targets had a gap on either the top or bottom of the
square. Distractors had gaps on the right or left sides. Participants
were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible
with a key press when they spotted a target. Each target was
mapped to a different response key. The positions of the squares
depended upon the set size. For set size 4, the squares occupied the
top right corner of the screen followed by four additional squares
per corner in a clockwise fashion for set sizes 8 and 12 respectively.
As per the original task [27], the presentation time for the array
was for 4000 ms followed by a 1000 ms ISI. There were 12 trials
for each set size for a total of 36 trials for the search alone
condition. Participants practiced on the task for 6 trials prior to
starting the experiment.
For the spatial working memory task, participants were shown a
central fixation and two squares appeared sequentially, one at a
time at different locations. The presentation time for each stimulus
was 500 ms with an ISI (blank screen) of 500 ms. Next, a blank
screen was displayed during a 5000 ms retention interval. Then a
test array appeared consisting of a central fixation cross
surrounded by two squares. Participants were given up to
2000 ms to indicate using a button press whether the location of
the squares matched the locations of the two squares shown
previously. Half the trials included squares in the matching
locations. Participants were instructed to focus on accuracy instead
of speed. There was a 1000 ms inter-trial interval. In the memory-
alone condition, participants practiced 6 trials before 36 experi-
mental trials.
For the dual-task condition, participants were instructed to
perform both tasks concurrently. First, two squares were displayed
sequentially for 500 ms each (separated by a 500 ms ISI). During
the retention interval, the participants performed the search task
described above with 4, 8, or 12 squares with gaps. Next, they
were shown the array with a central fixation and two squares as
described above for the spatial working memory task. There were
72 trials for the dual-task condition randomly presented for each
visual search set size (see figure 3).
Complex span. This task is the same described in Barrouillet,
Benardin and Camos [31]. Participants were requested to recall
one to six sequentially presented letters while performing an
arithmetic task. Every trial contained a series of letters presented
sequentially and interspersed first by a base number in blue (e.g., 5)
and subsequent sign-operand pairs (e.g., +2) in black. There was a
minimum of one sign-operand pair and a maximum of three. The
task followed a predetermined order of an increasing quantity of
letters to be recalled. Within this order, the number of sign-
operands pairs between each letter presented increased from one
to three. A red sign-operand pair signified the end of an operation.
Participants were asked to remember each letter and to compute
numerical operations simultaneously. At the end of each trial,
participants were instructed to enter an answer for the results of
the last operation together with the letters they remembered in
order (see figure 4 for an example of a trial). The total number of
trials was 18 based on one to six letters to be remembered in order
and one to three operations to be performed at each letter load.
To limit the stress and difficulty of the operations, the sign-operant
pairs were limited to either +/21 or 2.
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Figure 2a and b. Filter task. Samples from the 2 targets 6 distractors (2a) and 8 targets 0 distractors conditions (2b). Both samples include
changed orientation of a single target.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g002
Although we asked participants to key in the final operation, the
response was analyzed only to confirm that the participants were
following directions correctly. To ensure that participants were
following instructions to perform the operations, participants that
did not achieve at least 70% accuracy for the final operation for
either the pre or post-training task were excluded from the
analyses (see results section).
One point was awarded for each letter correctly recalled in each
trial. Hence, the DV was the total of all correctly recalled letters
across all trials.
Training Games
All participants utilized their personal iPhone or iPod Touch
(Apple Inc) to play the games assigned to them. Interaction with
the game was done using a touch-screen measured at 3.5 inches
diagonally. Participants downloaded their assigned game onto
their mobile devices via the iTunes App store (Apple Inc).
Participants were instructed to play the games for an hour per day
for 5 days each week. They were given the option to split up the
hour into two half-hour playing sessions. The total duration of
training was 4 weeks (20 hours in total). To keep track of their
game playing, participants were instructed to input their daily
playing time in an online database. Based on participants’ input,
all adhered to the gameplay duration as instructed.
Hidden-object game (Hidden Expedition-Everest; Big
Fish Games). The objective of this game is to find hidden
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
objects in a complex visual scene. The hidden objects are often
camouflaged among other objects to reduce saliency and prevent
pop-out effects. Players were instructed to touch the object on the
screen when they located it. Finding objects advanced the game’s
storyline.
Memory matrix 1.0 (Tvishi Technologies). For this game,
players were shown a 363 matrix in which tiles lit up in sequence.
Players were then instructed to reproduce the sequence by
touching the location of each tile sequentially in the matrix.
Correct reproduction of the sequence increased the sequence
length and matrix size. Conversely, failure to reproduce the
sequence correctly resulted in decreased sequence length and
matrix size. Hence, difficulty level was adjusted based on the
player’s performance.
Match-3 (Bejewelled 2; PopCap Games). For this game,
participants were presented with different shapes (e.g, polygons,
diamonds, squares, triangles and circles) of different colors in an
868 matrix. They were instructed to line up at least three similar
colors either horizontally or diagonally by switching the positions
of adjacent squares. Players earned bonus points if they achieved a
cascade of matches or more than a 3-item match.
Action game - Modern Combat: Sandstorm
(GameloftH). Similar to previous studies [3,4,10], the action
video game was a first-person shooter. In this game, players
controlled an in-game avatar as part of a special operations team
in a war zone. The objective was to navigate in hostile enemy
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Figure 3. Visual search/spatial working memory task. Sample trial for dual task condition. Note that figure is in reverse contrast.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g003
territory and to achieve predetermined objectives such as
deactivating enemy equipment. Throughout the game, multiple
enemies would appear in quick succession to engage the player.
Therefore, to ensure survival in the game, players had to shoot at
enemies as they appeared. Players controlled the game via virtual
joysticks on screen and fired their weapons by touching a
designated area on the screen.
Agent-based life simulation game - The sims 3 (Electronic
Arts). In this game, players controlled an in-game avatar to
accomplish tasks that mimicked real-life activities. These included
making friends, finding a job, sleeping, bathing, etc. The players
were allowed to follow or ignore in-game objectives. Accomplish-
ing in-game objectives required no pre-determined order.
General Procedure
Participants performed all the tasks in a computer lab. The
maximum number of participants tested in a single session was
seven. Participants were first briefed about the requirements of the
study. No information pertaining to their assigned training games
were given during this briefing.
Following the briefing, participants performed all computerized
tasks in a randomized order. The time taken to complete all
experimental tasks was approximately 1.5 hours. After completing
the tasks, participants were instructed to download their assigned
game and play that game for the prescribed duration. After the
training phase, they returned for the same set of computerized
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
tasks. The post-training sessions were conducted in the same order
with the exception of a debriefing at the end of the study.
Results
Attentional Blink
Since a goal of the study was to determine whether video game
training can reduce attentional blink, we limited our analysis of T2
detection accuracy only to lags affected by attentional blink (lags
2–4). A 2(time: pre and post training)63 (AB lags)65 (training
groups) ANOVA was conducted to determine if training resulted
in improvements for any of these lags. There was a significant
main effect of time, Wilks l = .74, F(1, 69) = 23.69, p,.001,
indicating that participants improved from pretest to posttest. This
was however qualified by a training group6time interaction, Wilks
l = .80, F(4, 69) = 4.46, p = 003. Interactions between lag and
time, lag and training group as well as lag, time and training group
were non-significant (all ps ..23). Similarly, between subject
effects were not statistically significant, F(4,69) = .79, p = .539.
To determine which groups benefited from training, separate
ANOVAs and follow-up paired t-tests were computed for each
training group following a main effect or interaction. There was a
significant main effect of time for the action game group, F(1,
15) = 35.80, MSE = .07, p,.001. Time6Lag interaction failed to
reach statistical significance, F(2, 30) = .1.95, MSE = .02, p = .159.
Follow-up paired t-test conducted on the action game group
indicated that the improvements in accuracies for lag 2
[t(15) = 25.80, p,.001, d = 22.19], lag 3 [t(15) = 25.42, p,.001,
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Figure 4. Complex span task. Sample trial for a complex span task with a two-letter load and two operations. Participants were asked to recall all
the letters in order while performing the operations. In this case, one operation would be ‘‘5+221 = 6’’ and the last operation would be ‘‘6+122 = 5’’.
Hence, the correct answer in this trial is GC5.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g004
d = 22.26], and lag 4 [t(15) = 23.55, p = .003, d = 21.53] were
statistically significant (see figure 5a). Furthermore, unlike the
other groups, the action video game group no longer showed an
attentional blink since they were at equivalent levels of accuracy
for all lags (all pairwise comparisons for lags 1–7 were not
statistically significant, corrected for multiple comparisons; see
figure 5b). Repeated measures ANOVA for all other training
groups failed to achieve a significant main effect of time or
time6lag interaction (all ps ..15).
Multiple Object Tracking and Cognitive Control
The dependent variables (DV) in the filter task were calculated
as a sensitivity index, d’ [32] for the two conditions of interest (2
target 6 distractor for cognitive control and 8 target 0 distractor
condition for multiple object tracking). Hit and false alarm rates of
0 or 1 were adjusted using the convention adopted in Stanislaw
and Todorov [33].
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
A 2(time)62(filter task conditions)65(training groups) mixed
ANOVA was conducted to determine if video game training
improved performance in either filter task conditions. The analysis
showed a main effect of time, Wilks l = .92, F(1, 70) = 6.23,
p = .015, indicating that participants’ performance changed from
pre to post training. However, this was qualified by a significant
time6training group interaction, Wilks l = .88, F(4, 70) = 2.51,
p = 05. There was also a main effect of condition, Wilks l = .22,
F(1,70) = 546.243, p,.001 and a three-way time6condition6
training group interaction, Wilks l = .86, F(4, 70) = 2.80,
p = .032. All other interactions were not statistically significant.
Likewise, between subject effect were not statistically significant,
F(4, 70) = .95, p = .439.
To follow-up the significant interactions, we conducted separate
2(time) 62(condition) repeated measures ANOVA for each
training group. For the hidden-object group, the main effect of
time failed to achieve statistical significance, Wilks l = .97, F(1,
14) = .38, p = .546. However, there was a main effect of condition,
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Figure 5a and 5b. Attentional blink performance. (A) Depicts changes in T2 detection accuracy from pre to post training for each training
group. (B) T2 detection accuracy during post training for each training group. Asterisks represent statistically significant pre to post-training
improvements. Error bars denote 95% confidence interval (CI) [51].
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g005
Wilks l = .22, F(1, 14) = 51.24, p,.001 and a significant time6
condition interaction, Wilks l = .70, F(1, 14) = 5.93, p = .029.
For the memory-matrix group, there was a main effect of
condition, Wilks l = .11, F(1, 13) = 103.20, p,.001. However,
main effect of time and interaction between time and condition
failed to reach statistical significance (both ps ..20).
For the match-3 group, there was a significant condition main
effect, Wilks l = .20, F(1, 13) = 52.06, p,.001. But this was
qualified by a time6condition interaction, Wilks l = .70, F(1,
13) = 5.65, p = .033. Conversely, time main effect failed to achieve
significance, Wilks l = .97, F(1, 13) = .47, p = .50.
The analyses for the action game group revealed significant
time, Wilks l = .38, F(1, 15) = 24.58, p,.001 and condition, Wilks
l = .38, F(1, 15) = 24.63, p,.001, main effects with no significant
interactions between the two, Wilks l = .88, F(1, 15) = 2.02,
p = .176.
Finally, for The Sims group, only condition yielded a significant
main effect, Wilks l = .21, F(1, 15) = 6.23, p,.001, with time main
effect and time6condition interaction failing to reach statistical
significance (both ps ..64).
Separate paired t-tests were conducted for each group that
showed a significant time main effect or time6condition interac-
tions to evaluate if performance changed from pre to post-training
in the 2 target 6 distractor and 8 target 0 distractor conditions.
Only the action group showed a statistically significant improve-
ment on the 2 target 6 distractor [t(15) = 24.11, p = .001,
d = 21.71] and the 8 target 0 distractor conditions
[t(15) = 22.78, p = .014, d = 21.02] (see figure 6a and 6b).
Visual Search Accuracy
For the visual search task, RT for correct detections and
accuracy rates were the DVs. A 2(time) 65(training groups)
62(condition: single vs dual task) 63 (set size) mixed ANOVA was
conducted to determine if there were any differences in
improvement in accuracy for the visual search task. Overall, there
were significant main effects of time, Wilks l = .83, F(1,
68) = 14.21, p,.001, condition, Wilks l = .86, F(1, 68) = 11.23,
p = .001 and set size, Wilks l = .85, F(2, 67) = 6.176, p = .003.
These results were qualified by significant interactions of time6
condition, Wilks l = .85, F(1, 68) = 11.69, p = .001, time6set size,
Wilks l = .91, F(2, 67) = 3.45, p = .038, as well as three way
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
interactions of time6condition6training group, Wilks l = .85, F(4,
68) = 2.92, p = .027. Between subject effects were not statistically
significant, F(4, 68) = .53, p = .717.
Separate mixed-ANOVAs were analyzed for each training
group to determine whether each group improved from pre to
post-training. With the exception of a significant time main effect,
Wilks l = .61, F(1, 13) = 8.42, p = .012 and time6condition
interaction, Wilks l = .67, F(1, 13) = 6.40, p = .025 in the match-
3 group, all main effects of time, time6condition, time6set size as
well as 3-way interactions were not statistically significant for all
other training groups. Follow-up paired samples t-tests for the
match-3 group were conducted. The t-tests revealed that the
improvement from pre to post training in the dual task condition
for the match-3 training group was significant for set-size 4
[t(13) = 22.43, p = .03, d = 21.32], set size 8 [t(13) = 22.81,
p = .015, d = 22.4] and set size 12 [t(13) = 22.80, p = .015,
d = 21.35; see figure 7]. Improvements for single task conditions
were not statistically significant.
Visual Search RT
We also conducted a 2(time) 65(training groups) 62(condition:
single vs dual task) 63 (set size) mixed ANOVA determine if there
were any differences in improvement in accuracy for the visual
search task for RT. Overall, there were significant main effects of
time, Wilks l = .75, F(1, 68) = 22.94, p,.001, condition, Wilks
l = .32, F(1, 68) = 141.63, p,.001 and set size, Wilks l = .05, F(2,
67) = 703.39, p,.001. Between subject effects were not statistically
significant, F(4, 68) = .76, p = .557. These results were qualified by
significant interactions of time6condition, Wilks l = .94, F(1,
68) = 4.70, p = .034, and condition6set size, Wilks l = .84, F(2,
67) = 6.49, p = .003. All other interactions failed to reach statistical
significance. Separate ANOVAs were analyzed for each training
group to determine whether there were any pre-post training
reductions in RT. For the hidden-object group, there were
significant main effects of time, Wilks l = .36, F(1, 14) = 24.41,
p,.001 as well as an interaction between time and condition,
Wilks l = .45, F(1, 14) = 17.33, p = .001. Significant time main
effects were also seen in the memory matrix group, Wilks l = .36,
F(1, 13) = 22.97, p,.001, but there were no significant interac-
tions. There was also a significant main effect of time for the
match-3 group, Wilks l = .53, F(1, 13) = 11.70, p = .005 as well as
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 Enhancing Cognition with Video Games

Figure 6a and b. Filter task performance. (A) Depicts pre and post-training performance for each training group in 2 target 6 distractor
condition for cognitive control. (B) Depicts pre and post-training performance for each training group in the 8 target 0 distractor condition for
multiple-object tracking. Asterisks represent statistically significant pre to post-training improvements. Error bars denote 95% CI.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g006

significant time6condition6set size interaction, Wilks l = .41, F(2,
12) = 8.73, p = .005. All other main effects or interactions with time
were not significant.
Paired t-tests were conducted on the hidden-object, memory
matrix, and match-3 groups to examine pre to post training
improvements in search time. The hidden-object game group had
a significant reduction in RT for all set sizes in both single and
dual task conditions [search-only condition of set size 4,
t(14) = 3.95, p = .001, d = 1.54, set size 8, t(14) = 2.50, p = .025,
d = 0.91 and set size 12, t(14) = 2.33, p = .035, d = 0.85; dual-task
condition of set size 4, t(14) = 6.38, p,.001, d = 2.49; set size 8,

Figure 7. Visual search accuracy. Visual search accuracy from pre to post training for match-3 group. Asterisks represent statistically significant
pre to post-training improvements. Error bars denote 95% CI.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g007

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t(14) = 4.92, p = .001, d = 1.81; set size 12, t(14) = 4.40, p = .001,
d = 1.91].
The memory matrix training group had a reduction in RT in set
size 4 [t(13) = 2.38, p = .034, d = 1.23] and set size 8 [t(13) = 3.19,
p = .007, d = 1.21], for the search-only conditions. There was a
significant reduction in RT for all set sizes in the dual task
condition [set size 4, t(13) = 2.78, p = .016, d = 1.16; set size 8,
t(13) = 4.00, p = .002, d = 1.67 and set size 12, t(13) = 2.64, p = .02,
d = 1.09].
For the match-3 training group, there were significant RT
improvements seen in search-only set size 8 [t(13) = 3.16, p = .008,
d = 1.21], and set size 12 [t(13) = 2.71, p = .018, d = 1.02]. For the
dual-task condition, there was a reduction in RT for set size 4
[t(13) = 3.04, p = .009, d = 1.34] (see figure 8).
Spatial Memory Task Accuracy
For the sake of simplicity, rather than include task condition
(single vs dual task), we coded the memory alone condition as set-
size 0 in our analysis, thus eliminating one factor. The resulting
analysis was a mixed 2(time) 65(training groups) 64 (set sizes
Figure 8. Visual search RT. Pre and post training search RT for hidden-object (A), memory matrix (B) and match-3 (C) groups. Asterisks represent
statistically significant pre to post-training improvements. Error bars denote 95% CI.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g008
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
0 = memory alone; 1–3 = dual task conditions) ANOVA. The
results of the ANOVA indicated a significant main effect of time,
Wilks l = .75, F(1,69) = 23.27, p,.001. There was also a main
effect of set-size, Wilks l = .39, F(3,67) = 35.20, p,.001. These
main effects were qualified by a significant time6set size
interaction, Wilks l = .78, F(3,67) = 6.38, p = .001. All other
interactions failed to achieve statistical significance (all
ps = ..30). The between-subject training group effect was also
not statistically significant, F(1,4) = .69, p = .601.
Separate 2(time) 64(Set size) ANOVAs were analyzed for each
training group to determine whether there were any pre-post
training improvements in accuracy for the spatial memory task.
For the hidden-object group, there was a significant time main
effect, Wilks l = .72, F(1,14) = 5.34, p = .037 as well as a significant
time6set size interaction, Wilks l = .33, F(3,12) = 8.11, p = .003.
Separate paired t-tests indicated that the hidden-object group
improved in the dual-task condition, set sizes 8 [t(14) = 23.13,
p = .007, d = 21.19] as well as set size 12 [t(14) = 23.29, p = .005,
d = 21.21] (see figure 9a).
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Figure 9. Spatial working memory accuracy. Spatial working memory performance from pre to post training for hidden-object (A) and memory
matrix (B) groups. Asterisk represent statistically significant pre to post-training improvements. Error bars denote 95% CI.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g009
For the memory matrix training group, there was a significant
main effect of time, Wilks l = .64, F(1,13) = 7.22, p = .019 but a
non-significant time6set size interaction, Wilks l = .66, F(3,
11) = 1.93, p = .183. Planned paired t-tests indicated that only
dual-task spatial memory accuracy set-size 8 had a significant
improvement [t(13) = 22.28, p = .04, d = -.90] while dual task set
size 12 was marginally non-significant [t(13) = 21.91, p = .078,
d = .79] (see figure 9b). All other main effects and interactions for
other training groups not mentioned here failed to achieve
statistical significance.
Complex Span
To ensure that the participants gave adequate attention to both
arithmetic and verbal memory tasks, we limited the analysis to
only participants that achieved 70% accuracy for the final
operations. In all, we excluded 20 participants from subsequent
analyses who did not make this cut-off. Four participants each
from the hidden-object, match-3 and action game groups were
excluded while three and five participants were excluded from the
memory matrix and The Sims groups respectively. The average
percent correct for the last operations for each of the remaining
groups for pre and post-training was at least 85%.
As each letter load consists of one to three operations, a
repeated-measures ANOVA at each level of the time factor
compared the scores of the three operations to determine if
performance differed. The results indicated that performance did
not differ across the three operations for pre-training, F(2,
108) = .17, MSE = 14.33, p = .85 and post-training, F(2,
108) = .15, MSE = 13.89, p = .86. As a result, we combined the
scores obtained from each of the operations for each letter load in
our subsequent analyses.
The dependent variable is the total score calculated from all 18
trials. We first conducted a 2(time) 65(training group) mixed
ANOVA to test for performance changes and if changes differed
between groups. The analysis showed a significant time main
effect, Wilks l = 81, F(1, 50) = 11.94, p = .001. However, this was
qualified by a time6training group interaction, Wilks l = .75, F(4,
50) = 4.21, p = .005. Between subject effects were not significant,
F(4, 50) = 1.08, p = .376.
To follow up the significant interaction, we conducted paired t-
tests to determine if each training group improved performance
from pre to post-training. However, a-level for statistical
significance was adjusted using Bonferroni corrections for the
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
number of comparisons made (.05/5 = .01). The paired t-tests
revealed that the match-3 [t(9) = -3.36, p = .008, d = 21.51] and
action groups [t(11) = 23.24, p = .008, d = 21.78] improved
significantly, while the improvement for The Sims group
[t(10) = -2.63, p = .025, d = 21.13] was marginally non-significant
after the Bonferroni adjustments (see figure 10). All other paired t-
test revealed no significant improvements in span performance for
the memory matrix group and the hidden-object groups (all ps
$.74).
Note that we also analyzed the results without excluding the 20
participants that did not make the cut-off because they did not
achieve the 70% criterion for the arithmetic operations. The
significant results when including the 20 participants were
equivalent.
Discussion
One aim of this study was to determine whether playing non-
action video games enhanced cognitive performance. We
confirmed that cognitive improvements following video game
playing were not limited to action video games alone. The
hypothesis that transfer would take place when game demands
closely matched behavioral task demands was also confirmed.
Additionally, we demonstrated that video game-related enhance-
ments to cognition occurred despite using mobile devices for
training, which had much smaller screen sizes than desktop or
laptop computer screens. We will discuss performance on each
task separately before examining the improvements from a larger
vista.
Attentional Blink
Only the action game group showed post-training improvement
in detecting T2 during the period normally affected by attentional
blink. These results supported the hypothesis that transfer is likely
when the game and task share common elements or demands, and
corroborated previous work showing that action video game
training can improve recovery from attentional blink [3,11]. In
fact, playing the action game appeared to eliminate the attentional
blink effect altogether, at least within the limits of how it was
measured in the current study The complete elimination of the
attentional blink is surprising since the training regime used in this
study was not better controlled nor was it a more intensive training
regimen than previous studies. On the contrary, compared to
previous studies [3,6] the current study was designed to allow more
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Figure 10. Complex verbal span performance. Complex verbal span performance from pre to post training. Asterisks represent statistically
significant pre to post training improvements (a #.01). Error bars denote 95% CI. Note that The Sims group was marginally non-significant after
Bonferroni correction of a –level.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058546.g010
freedom to participants to play games in their own time at the
location of their choosing. Hence, it is unclear whether complete
elimination of attentional blink could be expected in future studies
using an identical paradigm. Nevertheless, the results of action
game training-related reductions in attentional blink are consistent
with previous investigations [3,11].
How might playing an action video game improve attentional
capacity so that temporally close targets can be detected without a
reduction in accuracy? One possible mechanism is an improve-
ment in the speed and control of switching attention between
targets [34,35]. Note that the need to switch attention rapidly
amongst targets is a highly practiced skill in an action game
because the player must frequently respond to enemies that appear
in quick succession. In contrast, the other training games do not
demand such rapid switches of attention. Thus, this frequent
practice and the increasing demand to switch between temporally
close stimuli as the action video game progresses may have
resulted in a reduction of the attentional blink effect via an
improvement in attention switching. This suggestion is further
supported by results showing that experienced action video gamers
and those trained in action video games were better able to rapidly
switch between stimuli compared to controls [16,17].
Multiple-object Tracking
Matching the near transfer hypothesis of common elements
between the game and task, the action game group improved in
multiple-object tracking. This finding is consistent with previous
work that showed regular action game players and those trained
using action games apprehended more multiple objects simulta-
neously compared to non-gamers or those trained using non-
action video games [3,9,10,11].
The training regime in the current study used a much smaller
touch-screen as a display compared to previous studies. The fact
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
that the behavioral task used a screen a magnitude larger than the
training indicates that the training improved performance in parts
of the visual field that had not been explicitly trained. This finding
corroborates earlier work that showed that useful field of view was
improved by action gaming that extended to the regions in the
periphery that were not trained in typical action game play [3].
What are some possible mechanisms for improvements in
multiple-object tracking? In the action video game used for
training in this study, players had to keep track of and respond
quickly to multiple objects in their focus of attention (e.g., multiple
enemies, goals, paths, items to be retrieved). Hence, as a result of
regular action game play, it is plausible that the participants
became more efficient in their ability to track multiple fast moving
objects in parallel, an ability that transferred to tracking static
objects in the transfer task.
In contrast, there was no transfer from the match-3 game
players possibly because match-3 differed from the action game in
two important ways. First, for match-3, the number of objects to
track did not progressively increase. There were always 64 objects
on view. Although there was an increasing speed pressure as the
game progressed, the number of items to track remained constant.
Second, the objects only changed position due to the player’s
actions, and were predictable and mostly static. Thus, the lack of
transfer compared to the action video game may be due to the fact
that only tracking moving objects was demanding enough to lead
to increased capacity, or that there was no progressive increase
allowing players to master tracking at an easier level before
moving on to a more difficult level. Further experiments are
necessary to decide between these possibilities.
The memory matrix group also did not show any improvement
in keeping track of multiple objects. This is somewhat surprising
since on the surface, memory matrix should match well with the
multiple-object tracking task. The number of items to remember is
12 March 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | e58546

progressively increased as the participant improves in the memory
game. However, the training was different from the behavioral
task in that a) it required memory for a sequence of items each
individually, rather than the necessity to keep track of multiple
objects simultaneously; b) it is repetitive without any changes to the
presentation and context of the stimuli. Hence it is possible that
the repetitiveness of the game led to specificity in learning that
made improvement only possible within the game itself or an
extremely similar task to the game [36]. In addition, the
participants may have developed strategies that work for encoding
each item individually, but not for encoding multiple items quickly
as demanded by the behavioral task. These explanations are
speculative and will require further examination.
Cognitive Control
Our results indicate that only training by playing an action
video game improved cognitive control for filtering out task-
irrelevant stimuli. This corroborated previous finding of improve-
ments in visual selective attention as a result of action video game
play using different experimental paradigms to measure cognitive
control [3,12,13].
Recent research suggests probable mechanisms for the superior
performance in visual selective attention as a result of action game
play. It has been shown that action video gamers were less prone
to distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli than non-gamers [12]. Two
possible explanations were proposed for these results. One is that
action video game players have enhanced top-down control and
thus they were better able to filter out distractors. Alternatively,
action video gamers could be better able to recover from
attentional capture compared to their non-gaming counterparts
[12]. A recent study supported the former assertion that action
video game players were less susceptible to attentional capture.
Specifically, using an eye-tracker, it has been demonstrated that
regular action video game players had significantly lower
proportions of initial saccades to an abrupt onset stimuli compared
to their non-action gaming counterparts [13].
A recent electrophysiological study provided evidence for the
neural mechanisms for the superiority of top-down control in
action video gamers. Using steady-state evoked potentials
(SSVEPs), action video gamers showed increased suppression of
SSVEP amplitudes to unattended peripheral stimuli compared to
non-gamers. Furthermore, suppression was associated with faster
speed and greater accuracy for target detection in the action
gamers. Additionally, action gamers showed larger amplitude of
the P300 component in event-related potentials (ERP) compared
to non-gamers for attended targets [37]. The P300 amplitude is
related to detection of a stimulus and the decision process related
to it [38]. These findings coupled with greater suppression of
SSVEP amplitudes to peripheral non-targets therefore indicated
that not only were action video game players better able to
suppress distractors, they were also better at target detection. The
fact that action game players in the current study improved both
the abilities to detect multiple targets and filter out irrelevant
targets corroborated this study.
Additional evidence of neural mechanisms showing greater
attentional control for filtering of distractors in action gamers was
also recently demonstrated using fMRI. In a visual search task,
moving distractors led to less BOLD activity in motion sensitive
regions (MT/MST) relative to non-action gamers [39]. This
suggested that action video gamers were more efficient at
suppressing the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. Additionally,
in non-gamers, frontal-parietal areas, which included the superior
frontal sulcus as well as intraparietal sulcus and dorsal anterior
cingulate gyrus showed increased activations when attentional
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
demands increased whereas in action gamers, these regions were
minimally activated. These results implied that action gamers
might have automated the allocation of top-down attention so that
it required much less effort than non-action video game players
[39]. Taken together, these investigations indicated a causal
relationship between playing action video games and the ability to
suppress task-irrelevant distractors.
Although improvements in top-down directed distractor sup-
pression after playing action games appeared to be a far transfer
effect since on the surface the task and game did not resemble each
other, we argue that the transfer occurred because there were
common underlying demands between the game and the
behavioral task. Specifically, the ability to suppress task-unrelated
distractors is crucial in a stimuli-rich visual environment within an
action video game. To perform successfully within the game, the
player must apply top-down control to filter out large amounts of
irrelevant stimuli and focus on multiple targets on the screen.
Failure to filter out distractors may result in an inability to progress
within the game. Hence, the common elements hypothesis
suggesting a limited transfer effect remains valid to explain the
action game related transfer effects on cognitive control, specif-
ically on the ability to inhibit distractors. We suggest that these
common elements are at a cognitive stage of processing rather
than a perceptual or motor stage. Thus, it is expected that the
enhancements in performance will transfer to many tasks that vary
widely on perceptual and response demands as long as they retain
the same underlying cognitive demands.
Visual Search and Spatial Working Memory
Previous research showed that performing a visual search task
concurrently with a spatial working memory task adversely
impacted performance in both tasks compared to performing
each task separately [26,27]. We replicated these findings by
showing reduced accuracy for the spatial working memory task
and increased RT for visual search as participants performed the
dual task compared to performing each task separately. This may
reflect dual-task interference within a limited-capacity mechanism
such as visuospatial attention [40], visual working memory [41,42]
or a system representing spatial locations [27] that is shared
between search and detection of location change in the spatial
working memory task.
In the current study, hidden-object and memory matrix training
significantly improved both visual search and spatial working
memory while match-3 training improved visual search, support-
ing our earlier predictions. For the hidden-object game training,
although we did not find a significant improvement in search
accuracy in any of the set-sizes, search performance was enhanced
as shown by significant search time improvement. As accuracy was
very high (at least 90%) in all but the dual task set size 12
condition, it is plausible that a ceiling effect limited the possibility
of finding of an improvement.
The search time improvement in the hidden-object game group
was unexpected because the game did not require speeded search.
Yet, training resulted in improved search efficiency. It is important
to note that the search for targets in the hidden-object game was
arguably more difficult than the visual search behavioral task as
the items-to-be-found in the game were not predictable and the
visual scene was far more complex and varied. Furthermore, the
hidden objects were often camouflaged within the colored
background unlike the visual search task. Hence, frequent search
for varied and novel targets in the hidden-object game may have
led to improved efficiency in top-down biasing of search [43].
Training in the hidden-object game led to improved spatial
working memory accuracy. Crucially, the improvements were seen
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only in the dual-task conditions, although the lack of improve-
ments in the single task condition may have been due to a ceiling
effect. Nevertheless, taken together with improvements in search
efficiency, these results suggest that the hidden-object training led
to improved search so that additional cognitive resources in the
aforementioned hypothesized limited-capacity mechanism were
available to perform the spatial working memory task.
As expected, the memory matrix group also showed improve-
ments in the spatial working memory task. Specifically, while
memory matrix training did not improve accuracy rate for every
condition in the spatial working memory task, there were accuracy
improvements for the dual-task set size 8 condition. Additionally,
for the visual search task, the memory matrix group decreased
search times for search-only set-sizes 4 and 8. Importantly, there
were also significant reductions in RT for all set-sizes in the dual
task condition when both visual search and spatial working
memory were required.
How would memory matrix training improve spatial working
memory and visual search? One fundamental difference between
the memory matrix game and the other games in this study is the
heavy reliance of spatial working memory to successfully play the
game. Hence, assuming that the shared capacity-limited resource
is visual working memory as suggested [41,42], memory matrix
training may have enhanced visual-spatial working memory so
that both location change detection and visual search performance
were improved. This game was unique in the sense that visual-
spatial working memory was the only skill that was explicitly
trained in the game itself, unlike the other games that had multiple
demands.
As expected, the match-3 game training group also showed
improvements in visual search accuracy and search time as a result
of training. These improvements in accuracy were seen in all set
sizes in the dual-task condition while search time decreases were
seen in search-only set size 8 and 12 as well as dual-task set size 4
conditions. We hypothesized that improvements in search and
visual working memory would occur due to characteristics of the
match-3 game, Bejeweled 2. Within the game, players were
expected to search the entire visual scene to locate jewels that
matched in color and in shape. Hence, it is likely that general
visual search skills were also actively engaged and trained during
playing. Another important factor that might contribute to
learning and transfer in the game is the increasing difficulty in
searching within the game. As a player advanced to higher levels,
the number of possible matches within the 868 matrix decreased
which led to a lower chance of finding a match within any one
area of the matrix. This gradual increase in search difficulty is
important as learning and transfer is more likely when the task is
optimally challenging to the learner [44]. Thus, other variants of
match-3 (e.g., Bejewled Blitz) that do not change in difficulty, may
not lead to improvements in visual search.
Complex Span
The complex span task was administered to determine whether
training in any of these games would transfer to complex verbal
working memory tasks [45]. We predicted that memory matrix,
the only task that focused on memory alone, would be most likely
to transfer if the improvement was for a modality-free process of
memory. Contrary to this hypothesis, no significant improvements
were seen in the memory matrix group. Unexpectedly, improve-
ments in the complex span task occurred in the match-3 and
action video game training groups.
The improvements by the match-3 and action game groups
indicated that training in these two games might lead to
improvements in higher-order executive processes which are
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Enhancing Cognition with Video Games
crucial for performing complex span tasks. Unlike simple working
memory span tasks that emphasize only storage and retrieval,
complex span tasks are dual-tasks that recruit additional cognitive
processes, such as executive control of attention to allow for
efficient switching between tasks and to increase focus on current
tasks in the presence of distractors [46,47]. Previous neuroimaging
research indicated that performance in complex span tasks such as
the one used here actively recruited the left dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex, an area linked with executive processes, but not when
either the span or arithmetic tasks were performed in isolation
[48]. Hence, these two games may have both frequently recruited
and trained higher-order executive function, including task
switching and strategic planning. First, for the action game,
players switched between concurrent tasks like engaging sudden
onset enemies while accomplishing several mini-objectives within
the game, which in turn required holding the objectives in working
memory. Similarly, performance on the match-3 game also
required keeping track of matching items in working memory
while formulating movement plans. These plans may occur several
moves in advance. Hence, training using these games may have
led to improvements in executive processing, which translated to
improvements in the cognitively demanding complex span task.
Further investigations are necessary to determine on the transfer-
ability of executive improvement from training to novel tasks.
In contrast to the match-3 and action video game training, we
argue that memory matrix training required neither strategizing,
nor anticipatory planning. In memory matrix, there is always only
one fixed order of presentation. Furthermore, memory matrix
training appears more similar to a simple span, rather than a
complex span task. This may explain why no improvements were
found for the memory matrix group in the complex span task.
Unexpectedly, in the agent-based simulation group, post-test
improvement in complex span trended towards significance. While
the results are tentative, we speculate that playing this game may
also have led to improvement in executive processes, since the
game included planning and strategizing elements. Players were
required to hold active representations of future plans in working
memory while performing other tasks. Hence, playing The Sims
could have trained executive functions like the action video game
and match-3, albeit to a lesser extent since there were fewer time
demands. It is plausible therefore that a longer and more intense
training regimen may be necessary to achieve similar results to the
faster-paced games. Interestingly, a recent study supported this
possibility by reporting that 50 hours training in the game The
Sims improved the task-switching aspect of executive functioning
[16].
Limitations
There were a number of limitations in the current study. First,
unlike previous investigations that required participants to perform
the training tasks in a laboratory [3,6], participants in the current
study were allowed to train on the games at their own leisure.
Although participants entered daily logs of their gameplay, it was
not possible to ensure actual fidelity to the prescribed training
regimen. However, allowing participants to train during their own
free time had the advantage of being more applicable to how the
games were played normally. In addition, the results using action
games replicated results of lab-controlled studies.
Second, some of the games may have drawn more interest from
the players than others leading to non-specific factors such as
motivational differences rather than the properties of the game
accounting for behavioral change. It is known that action video
games are highly motivating and arousing [49,50]. In contrast,
games like memory matrix were repetitive. However, since
14 March 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | e58546

different groups showed improvements in different tasks, it is
unlikely motivation and arousal differences could have explained
the cognitive improvements. Additionally, even games that were
repetitive showed transfer to cognitive tasks, confirming that
strong interest and variability in gameplay alone were not vital for
transfer to occur.
Conclusions and Future Directions
The results from the current study corroborated the increasing
body of evidence indicating that action video game play enhances
several cognitive and perceptual abilities. In contrast to other
studies using larger screen sizes, the results here showed that these
aspects of attention and verbal span were similarly improved with
a small screen size on a handheld device. In addition, rather than
training in a lab, participants self-controlled play time. This has
implications outside the laboratory with the increasing popularity
and market penetration of smart phones and handheld digital
devices.
Novel findings were also reported by including several video
game training groups. Although previous studies had found only
limited evidence of transfer after playing non-action video games,
most studies included transfer tasks that closely mimicked the
demands in action video games, favoring transfer for these games.
In the current study, one example was the demand to detect
rapidly appearing targets that was shared by both the action video
game and the attentional blink task. Thus, the success of action
video games at transferring to many tasks may have been due to
the common perceptual and cognitive skills shared between action
video games and transfer tasks. To further test this hypothesis
requires using a variety of action video games that contain
different combinations of demands. The inclusion of multiple
games with varying demands demonstrated that when a wider
battery of transfer tasks was included that contained demands
closely matched to the training games, transfer effects favoring
other game types could be achieved as well. Thus, we suggest that
transfer effects are maximized when the transfer task contains
elements that are similar to the training game [24].
However, although a theory of identical elements [24] can
explain the transfer effects in this study, a major gap remains. The
theory does not specify at what level the identical elements must
occur in order for transfer to be successful. One possibility is the
requirement that the training and transfer tasks share similar
cognitive and/or perceptual demands. For instance, the hidden
object game and visual search tasks share similar perceptual
demands to search the visual scene. Another approach to explain
transfer is that the more general the trained process (as opposed to
a process that is specialized for use in only one task), the greater
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